Defining “Social Sustainability”: Towards a Sustainable Solution to the Conceptual Confusion
Journal article, 2019

The interest in "social sustainability" has recently increased in the field of urban development. We want societies, cities, and neighborhoods to be economically and environmentally sustainable, but we also want urban areas that are safe, diverse, walkable, and relaxing, just to mention a few examples. Strikingly, however, there is no consensus regarding what definition of "social sustainability" should be employed. Additionally, some people are skeptical about the prospect of finding a useful definition at all and claim it is impossible to satisfactorily define the concept for various reasons, such as its complexity. A potential first step towards navigating this conceptual maze is to provide desiderata for a definition of social sustainability. We defend a list of nine desiderata and thereby create a theoretical framework for analyzing and constructing a definition of "social sustainability". We also examine the skeptical arguments and find that it is premature to conclude that the goal of finding a useful definition is hopeless. With the criteria in place, the future debate can proceed by assessing definitions of "social sustainability" in a more structured and transparent manner. This activity is of upmost importance if we want to create just cities.

Social Sustainability

Conditions of Adequacy

Definition

Purposes and Aims

Author

Karl de Fine Licht

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Science, Technology and Society

Anna Folland

Uppsala University

Etikk i Praksis

1890-3991 (ISSN) 1890-4009 (eISSN)

Vol. 13 2 21-39

Subject Categories

Architectural Engineering

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Human Geography

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Building Futures (2010-2018)

Roots

Basic sciences

DOI

10.5324/eip.v13i2.2913

More information

Latest update

2/10/2020